The term “logos”

The word “logos” is derived from a Greek word having different meanings. The meanings for the term can be, “a ground”, “an opinion”, “a word”, “speech”, “an expectation”, “reason”, it can also mean, “account”, “proportion”, “discourse’, and also “a plea”. Logos was used in the western philosophy or in psychology and for religion purpose. After Heraclitus (c. 535 – c. 475 BC) used the term to mean a principle of order along with knowledge, the term “logos” was considered as a technical term after that in the western philosophy. Logos can also mean “the divine word of god or Jesus Christ”.

In the Greek philosophy the term is used in three different ways by the Ancient philosophers. The term “logos” was introduced in the Jewish philosophy by a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher named as Philo, who used to live in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt and was also known as Philo of Alexandria.  He distinguished the words logos prophorikos, which means the word that is uttered and logos endiathetos, meaning the word that remains within.

In the writings of Heraclitus, the term “logos” acquired special attention for the first time in the ancient Greek philosophy. According to Heraclitus, the word provided a linkage between the rational discussion and the rational structure of the world. According to Aristotle, in the art of Rhetoric, the meaning of the word was to argument from reason, which was one of the three modes of persuasion. The remaining two modes were pathos and ethos.